Life Without Dreams
by Shadow2808
Summary: Cobb has been living the time of his life after the Fischer Inception, but what happens when Ariadne comes with a horrible secret? Will Saito have another job for the team? One that seems more impossible than the last?
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys! This is my first fanfic so constructive criticism is appreciated. There will be another extracting job later on but not as high profile as the movie. Maybe if I'm lucky enough so give me ideas! _

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this except my ideas. If I did I would probably be off buying something I desperately wanted but could never have sort've stuff…

Life without dreams

Cobb woke up smiling. He felt the sheets of the bed with his hand seemingly enjoying this simple pleasure. He quickly put his hand in his pocket looking for his one totem that assured him that this wasn't a dream. He grasped it tightly and spun it looking at it, as if begging it to fall. The top started to falter and fell. He sighed in happiness.

It has almost been two years since the Fischer Inception. '_Two Years' _he thought. He quickly dressed in his casual clothing of straight jeans and a t-shirt and went down stairs to cook breakfast. After twenty minutes, he let an exasperated sigh. It's been two whole years and he still didn't get the hang of cooking. He suddenly heard shouting and was taken out of his thoughts. His two children came running down the stairs quickly hugging him. Phillipa started giggling while James was laughing on the floor. "What is it princess?" Dom asked?

Through her giggles Phillipa answered "Dad! The pancakes are burnt! And your face is all black!" Cobb quickly heard his smoke alarms go off. '_Crap' _He didn't realize that all of his food was burning. He quickly got rid of all of the burnt food while Miles was just walking in.

"My, my, quite the mess you made haven't you Dom?" Dom smiled. "Can you watch the children for me while I clean up?" "Of course," Miles answered. "Kids, grab a magazine. Let's try to blow away some of this smoke huh? Let's preserve this old man's lungs for a while longer."

Cobb quickly went into the bathroom to change his charcoaled shirt and wash his face. He laughed. His children were right. He looked terrible. He faintly heard the door bell while he heard the doorbell ring. He faintly heard the two childish voices saying "Uncle Arthur!"

Ariadne looked around. She was at the lake. She saw Cobb sitting on a bench looking out in the lake. She was dreaming Cobb more and more often. She went over and sat next to him. He smiled at her. "How are you?"

"I'm good" she replied. They enjoyed the silence Ariadne put her hand on Cobb's arms. All of a sudden she heard shrieking. "How dare you touch him!" Ariadne turned around to see Mal with a knife in her hand. "Mal no!" Cob shouted. Mal swung the knife.

She woke up and screamed.

Dom went out to see the children. They were playing with Arthur. "Hello Arthur."

Arthur placed James down gently "Hello Cob. How's life?" "Great!" Dom replied. Arthur chuckled. He talked with Dom a while talking and catching up on all the recent events with the team. "How's Ariadne?" Cobb asked. "She's doing just fine. She just finished her degree in architecture. I bet she's pretty happy I bet. Cobb smiled. "Tell her I said hi." Arthur replied "Why don't you do it yourself?" she said that she's coming by to visit tomorrow." "We would love to have her" Cobb said. Miles chuckled "I haven't seen that bright face in ages! She must have dinner with us, but uh Cobb? Let's buy food this time. Don't want to kill her and all that, you see. A lot of legal trouble. Cobb laughed. He loved his

_Life Without Dreams._

_Remember Reviews! I probably won't type anymore if I know nobody's reading it!... =( _


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey guys Chapter two here. Remember reviews! Sorry I didn't put the lines to separate Cobb and Ariadne. So Ariadne was somewhere else… _

_ Chapter 2_

Phillipa and James were outside playing in the playground in their back yard. Cobb walked outside.

"Daddy, daddy! Push me on the swings Phillipa said as she ran towards the swings. Cobb laughed, "I think it's time you do it by yourself." Cobb walked over and began teaching her. She laughed as she tried bending her feet and letting it go. After a while she managed to do it. "Daddy, daddy, I'm doing it!" He laughed.

"Nice kids you have there Dom." He turned around to see Ariadne with her luggage smiling at him. "Ariadne!" Cobb said smiling. He walked up to her a gave a awkward hug. Ariadne smiled "How have you been Cobb."

"Dom, call me Dom." He replied. She smiled.

"Daddy who's this?" James asked. "This is Ariadne, my friend." Ariadne squatted down and asked, " How are you children, are you having fun?"

They responded with good and ya's! She smiled. Phillipa started saying, "Are you the lady that daddy talks about?" Ariadne blushed. Cobb started saying "Yes she is. Now let's go inside. Time to eat. As they came in Cobb started talking again, "So what do you guys want to eat I'm ordering." Ariadne walked toward Cobb, "You don't have to buy us something." Phillipa, James, and Miles started screaming. Phillipa was on her knees. "Please don't make us eat daddy's food. Its going to kill us. Ariadne laughed, "I'll help him." Cobb flushed, but lead Ariadne towards the kitchen.

They decided that they would make pasta for the children. They worked in a comfortable silence until the food was finished. Occasionally, Ariadne would scold Cobb for almost blowing up the food. But other than that, they were happy. Ariadne reached and grabbed Cobb's arm. All of a sudden she remembered her dream

_"How dare you touch him?"_

"Ariadne, Ariadne! Are you ok?" Cobb asked. She snapped back into reality. "Ya, ya," she answered smiling slightly, " I think we're done." Cobb frowned as he watched Ariadne walk out the kitchen door. He had seen her frightened face for that moment. Something was wrong.

"Foods Ready!" Ariadne announced. As they ate everybody enjoyed lighthearted conversation. Phillipa and James asked question after question, and Ariadne answered each one of them, even though it was downgraded to rated E for the children. After dinner Ariadne started playing with the kids helping them draw laughing while Cobb was working on his laptop. He smiled. He saw Ariadne walk into the kitchen.

_With Ariadne_

Ariadne started to walk into the kitchen and sat at the table. She sighed. She loved Cobb's kids. They were so adorable. She thought back to her dream. Was this real or would Mal just pop up and kill her, just like that. She franticly searched her jean pockets, she felt a familiar chess piece and grasped it. She dropped the piece. It landed in just the right way. She sighed. This was real. She started to walk towards the living room again.

As she came in the room she heard the children pleading with Dom. "Please, daddy can Ari stay? (she had allowed them to call her that because they were adorable and special.) Dom laughed, "I don't know. That's Ariadne's choice." The children saw her walking in and started begging her with puppy eyes and pouts. "I Don't want to intrude kids. I'm sure your father has other things…" But Cobb cut her off. "I would be delighted if you stayed." Miles just coming in from his nice walk said, " We wouldn't mind,"he smiled knowing that everybody wanted her to stay.

"Ok.." She relented. The children screamed. Cobb started helping her settle. After she was settled he left.

As Cobb walked out he frowned, he saw how Ariadne pulled out her totem.

_Why would she need to check that this is real? _

_ENDENDENDENDEND_

_So did you like it? Review please._


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3 here enjoy! Thank you for all those you reviewed! I thankyou for your criticism! I just read a holocaust book for school project right now so I'm feeling pretty sad and emo right now…_

_STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART_

Ariadne was dreaming. She was dreaming about earlier today when she touched Dom's arm until he just disappeared.

"Hello dear. I think you need to be taught something."

Ari turned around to see Mal. Her eyes widened. _'Not this again' _she thought. Mal placed down her gun.

"I told you to stay away from my husband! You know he already has a wife. That is a sin you know."

Ari started to stutter, "You're dead. This is a dream."

"Are you sure? What if this is real and the other is a dream, but your mind is twisted with lies."

"Cobb is happy" Ariadne replied.

"He does not know what happiness is!" Mal hissed. "My, my I'm getting a little off aren't I? This is the real world Ari" she said all of a sudden with fake caring like they were the closest of friends. "You're living a lie. You believe it's a lie. The other world holds no happiness for you. Cobb will never be yours. This reality can be your happiness. Create anything you want. You know..."

Ariadne started breaking down, "NO! YOU"RE NOT HERE! I'm DREAMING!"

"Dom will be with me dear," Mal said snarling, "We'll live our life together, like he promised. Oh James and Phillipa miss him so much. They miss their father very much. We can go to the beach again"

Ariadne jumped and reached the gun, pointed it at her head.

She jolted up breathing heavily and started crying.

She suddenly heard children laughing. She opened her eyes and realized that it was morning already. _'I must have dosed off'_ she thought. As she walked towards the kitchen she bumped into Cobb.

"Oh! I'm sorry, didn't see you there," Cobb said laughing.

She smiled, "That's ok Cobb, I know you're still a clutz."

Cobb looked offended then laughed. She started to walk to the kitchen but Cobb pulled her back.

"I want to tell me something," He said. She waited. "I wanted to thank you."

She looked questioningly, "For what? You're going to be more elaborate than that Cobb."

He smiled, "I'm thanking for bringing me back, to reality where I belong." She flinched at the word reality remembering last night's dream. She tried to hide it but Cobb noticed. He had to talk about that to her.

"Why were you using the totem the other day?"

"I just wanted to make sure Cobb ok? More importantly how are you dealing with this?"

"I'm doing good," Cobb said truthfully. "Are you going back to Paris anytime soon?"

"No, I want to explore this city first, see what there is you know?" she said.

Cobb understood, "Well I'm taking the kids out tomorrow, do you want to come, or do you want to stay home and watch the old man(miles) grade college papers all day?"

"I don't know," she said mischievously, "I could ask Eames to show me around."

Cobb felt a little jealous until he realized that it was a joke and laughed. "Eames is in town?"

Ariadne replied, "Ya, apparently the whole team is here for something." Cobb looked questioningly? He snapped out of his thoughts as his children screamed that they wanted breakfast. He smiled. He did a lot of that lately. He felt happy, and Ariadne, he couldn't help but feel nice around her. He still had dreams of Mal that plagues him during the night.

'_Memories'_ he thought _'Nothing more than memories._

_So did you like? I tried making Mal insane… There will be ups and downs for Cobbs and Arriadne relationship so give me ideas for them! =)  
_


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4! Woot woot!_

_STARTSTARTSTARTSTART_

You hear children playing around a large fountain leisurely playing with the water as parents talk and laugh making sure that their children aren't getting to far of their line of view.

"Ari! Come on we just have to eat here!" Phillipa screamed.

She was pointing to one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, the _Avanti Ristorante. _Adorned with modern Italian architecture but it gave a sense of the old traditional styles as well.

Ari laughed and followed her in with James quick to follow. Cobb shook his head '_And they choose a restaurant that breaks my wallet.' _ However he just followed them into the restaurant. As they ate, Phillipa and James went on and on about everything they can think of.

"Daddy, we're full." James said while Phillipa nodded in agreement.

"Ok, that's alright. What do you two want to do now?" Cobb asked but immediately regretted.

"BUYING STUFF!" both children screamed.

"Remember, daddy you owe us," Phillipa said in a sweet voice smiling. Cobb groaned, the guilt trip…

As they walked out they went from store to store they found James some toys while Phillipa looked with starry eyes at the bracelets and clothes. They then decided to split up, Cobb with James while Ariadne with Phillipa.

_An hour later_

"I think we should head back son. I see Ariadne and Phillipa in that clothing store let's go." Cobb said.

"Ok dad" James said running towards the clothing shop.

As Dom was walking he saw that Ariadne was looking at a necklace, admiring it but quickly looking away. He looked at it thoughtfully as he got closer. He was snapped out of his thoughts when the group just walked out.

"Dad look! We got a Camera! Let's take some pictures," Phillipa exclaimed.

Cobb nodded and led the children towards the fountain. As they were there the kids bought ice cream because, well it was on their way. Ariadne smiled. (_Long time since she smiled huh)_

"Say Cheese!" she said and clicked the button.

The picture in her mind was beautiful. James was sitting down near the fountain licking his ice cream while Phillipa was wiping her mouth with a napkin. Cobb was smiling at the Camera.

"Ari, Ari you and daddy now!" Phillipa said.

"Can I press the button Phillipa?" James said following her faintly hearing a sure. He shouted, "yes!"

Dom and Ariadne stood together and smiled.

"Daddy! No! don't just stand there put your arm around her!"Phillipa exclaimed

"Kiss!" James said.

Ariadne started blushing. Cobb laughed.

"How about on the cheek," he said. The children nodded. He bent his neck down and placed a light kiss on the cheek.

The children screamed for joy as they took the picture at just the right moment. Cobb ushered the children back into the car for dinner. Ariadne took the camera and looked at the pictures. Cobb had kissed her on the cheek. She smiled at it.

'_This wasn't a bad day after all' _was the thought of everybody in the car.

'_Not bad at all'_

_ENDENDENDENDENDENDEND_

_Saito is going to give the team a new job next chappie! Give me ideas on what inception you might like! Remember ups and downs for Ariadne and Cobb too. I posted today so i probably won't update tomorrow..Much longer chapters from now on due to the please.  
_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

STARTSTARTSRARTSTARTSTART

Saito sat in his room with another man.

"We cannot let the Man become a super power," the man said.

Saito nodded, "Thank you for your advice, I'll take it into consideration."

Saito stared down at the paper. Dale Sunders was becoming a super power. They specialized in technology. Information leaked out that Sunders had technology that would blow Microsoft to bits. They were planning to take over the tech and energy world.

Saito growled angrily and slammed his fist down on the table. It was time to call his Inception team.

_Another location_

Cobb was reading the newspaper outside on the porch. Enjoying the quiet. Everything was perfect. Ariadne was playing with the kids. He suddenly heard the phone ringing inside the house, however the ringing stopped. He ignored the ringing and turned back to reading.

"DOM! PHONE!" Miles shouted.

Cobb sighed and walked inside. Miles gave Cobb the phone.

"Hello?" Cobb asked?

"Hello Mr. Cobb," Saito said.

"Saito, what can I do for you?" Dom said.

"I have a proposition for you Mr. Cobb. Be ready to be picked up tomorrow at five o' clock. Wear something nice. Oh and tell your architect to come too."

The line went dead as Dom frowned. _'Another Job?' _he thought as he went to tell Ariadne.

_With Arthur and Eames_

"Apparently we have another job from Saito," Arthur said.

"What? I'm not going into some crackpot's head anytime soon," Eames whined.

"Apparently, we're getting picked up tomorrow at five. We have to wear fancy stuff like a suit or something. Call that Indian guy that sedates people for me will ya?

"Did you even hear me?" Eames shouted?

"Oh yeah he mentioned getting payed for the rest of our lifetimes if we succeeded," Arthur said from his room preparing for what to wear.

"Why didn't you tell me about the money first, should I wear a Navy blue? No no, black is fine. Oh wheres that guys phone number. Yusuf, Yusuf, Yusuf" Eames said while muttering retirement over and over.

Arthur just shook his head. He knew he should have rented a different room when coming here.

_Next Day_

Cobb was rearranging his tie…Failing to rearrange his tie.

"Dammit," he muttered. He heard someone behind him laugh. He turned around to see Ariadne smiling. She was stunning wearing a black satin dress that let the mind imagine the rest. Cobb naturally blushed.

"Let me help you," she said. Then muttered, "You need help with everything don't you."

He smiled. As she was done and was about to leave and talk to the kids before she went, she felt something cold touch her neck. She looked down and gasped.

"C-Cobb," she stuttered, "It's beautiful. You didn't need to do this."

It was the necklace she was staring in the shop. It was gold and adorned with small little diamonds. The only thing different was that there was an A in the middle.

"Well I think you look beautiful in it." Cobb said giving her a hug. She turned around looking into his eyes. They were so caring, so loving. She felt herself getting slowly towards his lips.

_Ding!_

It was the doorbell.

"I guess it's time to go," Cobb said while having a tint of red on his cheeks.

She nodded said goodbyes to the children and went out the door. As they walked out they saw a limo. Cobb whistled.

"Well Saito really knows how to treat his guests," he said while helping Ariadne in. She laughed at the fact that the limo had no wine.

'_Must be a pretty big announcement if he doesn't want us to get drunk'_

After thirty minutes the limo stopped at place where only the richest of the rich would go to. The Restaurant was at least 3 stories completely with marble. The tables and seats could cost as much as a small house each.

Cobb and Ariadne walked towards the waiter standing right inside the door.

"Hello sir, Madame, table for two?" The waiter asked.

"No we already have a table with a man named Saito," Cobb said.

"Oh right this way," the waiter responded as he lead the two towards the table Saito was sitting.

"Ah, Mr. Cobb how nice to see you again, and Ariadne, simply stunning," said Saito in a friendly greeting.

"Likewise Saito," Cobb said as they sat down.

"I have taken the liberty of ordering the finest food in this restaurant Mr. Cobb . I hope the both of you like seafood."

As they were being served the food, they saw Arthur and Eames come running in towards the table.

Eames panting, "Saito, Cobb, Ariadne, nice to see you again."

Arthur started to explain, "We were heading towards here but our limo driver got lost.."

All Saito did was smile.

Cobb whispered into Saito's ear, "You wouldn't have told your limo driver to circle around a couple times did you?"

"I know nothing of what you speak of Mr. Cobb," Saito said smiling. As they ate they enjoyed lighthearted conversation as to how Saito was now raking in money from across the world and other stuff that aren't compared to that.

Everybody was satisfied.

Saito spoke , "Now about this job."

_END END END END END END END END_

_LOl first cliffy I've ever done. INCEPTION TIME =) Cobb and Ariadne's relationship will continue to grow but there will be action! I haven't decided what kind of job yet so REVIEW and tell me what you want! _

_I might just do it…_

_Shadow2808_


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